


The Weight on my Shoulders

by CoopPenny



Category: Danny Phantom, Supernatural
Genre: Bad Friends, Bad Parenting, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Child Neglect, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Exhaustion, Gen, Hurt Danny, Nice Vlad Masters, Poor Danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoopPenny/pseuds/CoopPenny
Summary: Five times that Danny was too tired from fighting.And one time he had a break.





	The Weight on my Shoulders

**Author's Note:**

> Just a one-shot that I did while I was stressing about exams, revision and couldn’t sleep for the life of me…

1) The Classroom

Danny’s life had always been kind of hectic and abnormal. For starters, his parents were obsessed ghost hunters who often described in vivid detail about what they’d do to a ghost to their young and influential children when they were both very young. For that reason alone, it had always been up to Danny and his older sister, Jazz, to do things that not all children had to put with. People like Dash, who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, would never even dream of having to do the stuff that Danny and Jazz did for themselves. Hell, he remembered a time when he and Dash were tasked with cleaning up the sink in the art room when they were fresh out of kindergarten and he cried about it while Danny rolled up his sleeves and took out the wet tissues that trapped the mucky water at the bottom, before grabbing a sponge.

It’s not that Maddie and Jack were awful parents, it was that they got so invested in their jobs, they often forgot they had children to care for and when they remembered, the children might as well have done it all themselves anyway. Danny will never shake the memory of a flying ghost sausage that tried to eat his big toe in the middle of the night, the light scarring of its vicious teeth marks could still be seen if one were to look at his foot closely. The act of chores and cooking was left to Danny and Jazz, and that was how they would rather it be.

So, with house work on top of school work, friends, and avoiding overly eccentric parents, Danny already had a full schedule each day of the year, rarely getting any peace to himself.

Then the accident happened, Danny turned into a half-ghost and things escalated from there. From struggling to control his new found abilities, to hiding it from his family, Danny was barely holding it together. And then ghosts came barging into his life like a goddamned lorry at full speed and all the things that Danny had been juggling in his life just clattered uselessly to the floor. To this day, Danny didn’t know how his secret got out to the creepy, one-track minded ghosts of the town, but as suddenly as Danny got his powers, he also found himself up to his neck in enemies that he never wanted in the first place.

Exhaustion was the only thing that Danny really registered each and every day. Ghost fighting wasn’t a scheduled thing that Danny could move about and try to fit into his jam-packed day; it was a mess of inconsiderate ghosts that didn’t know how to stay dead and stop picking on a kid that wanted nothing to do with them. Honestly, it was only the encouraging shoves of his friends that he stopped the ghosts from wrecking havoc, words of ‘possible injuries’ and ‘people endangerment’ ringing in his ears and the certified comments of ‘only you can do this’ echoing in Sam’s determined voice. Danny often got the feeling that his friends liked hunting ghosts more than he did.

Begrudgingly, Danny would admit to the fights and ‘hero’ status being awesome, but there were times he just wanted to be Danny Fenton, fourteen year old boy who wanted to work for NASA.

The ghost fights he had didn’t allow this, disturbing him at school, during dinner, when he was asleep. Ghosts were taking over his life more than he ever wanted them to and it was taking its toll on Danny’s body as his limbs constantly ached and the luminous lights of the school corridors hurt his sleep deprived eyes, the clangs and bangs of lockers that were closed too hard reverberating through his entire body, causing a thumping ache in his head that suspiciously matched the beating of his heart. It was never meant to intrude on his life like this and now, even when he was at school without fighting any ghosts, he was unable to concentrate due to his lack-of-sleep induced headache.

The teacher looked at Danny with concern. Mrs. White had always been Danny’s favourite teacher, she was always softly spoken and she had a keen eye for astronomy that had Danny staying behind class during break to talk to her about it. No doubt, she noticed his change in attitude, the exhausted slump in his shoulders, the drooping blood-shot eyes and the frequent wincing that came with seeing the too bright lights around him. They never really talked anymore, and that was something Danny really missed about his life before the accident…

The teacher asked a question that Danny couldn’t process, the words jumbled and going over his head in his tired state. He said he didn’t know and the teacher frowned in even deeper concern; she knew he knew the answer to the question she’d directed at him, he had discussed it with her before in utmost detail that had Mrs.White glowing in pride that Danny was one of her students. He looked tired, large, dark bags made his eyes look bruised, slumped over like he was too worn out and strung up (a position that he was far too young to adapt to now) and it looked like illness from lack of sleep was closing in on the boy. She was almost tempted to hand him a notice and send him home, but she knew that would only stress the boy out more. Lancer’s criticism of Danny’s tardiness and underwhelming performance in class having reached all the teachers in the school, as well as Dash Baxter’s bullying tendencies on the boy and Lancer’s dismissal of it. Mrs. White could do nothing but pity the once bright-eyed boy that was so eager about the stars, knowing the names of every constellation within the night sky.

Just then, Danny bolted upright, a chill going down his spine and annoyance heightening as he turned his icy gaze to glare at the door.

“I need to use the bathroom.” was all he mumbled to the teacher, not even waiting for a response as he slipped out of his chair and quickly moved into the hall.

With quick steps, Danny was round the tight corner and whispered to himself, “Going Ghost.” before he opened his eyes to let the green energy shine out, transforming his body with the ring of light that appeared around him. Following the chill in the air, Danny phased through the walls of his school until he finally found himself in the shadowed, unused basement of the school. The large room was dusty and creepy, covered in old cobwebs and lightly decorated with new ones. Danny’s natural glow of his ghostly form highlighted the area around him, if only a little bit, making him squint his eyes in an attempt to see through the darkness.

Almost immediately, Danny knew who he was up against. Anger and annoyance boiled in his blood as he rounded a corner that was stacked with old, nearly rotten through cardboard boxes. With a tired sigh, Danny floated around the corner and was greeted with the predictable sight of the blue skinned ghost in old dungarees.

Turning around dramatically, with boxes floating on either side of him like hulking henchmen, the Box Ghost raised his arms in the air as he shouted out his usual dialogue, “BEWARE OF THE BOX GHOST!!” he bellowed, his over exaggerated voice ringing in Danny’s tired ears and causing his head to throb in protest.

With a glare at the noisy ghost, Danny kept his lips thinned and his arms crossed as he gazed at the other, hopefully this wouldn’t take long…

“FEAR ME!!! FEAR ME!! FEAR M-“

“SHUT UP!!” Danny bellowed an interruption, glaring heatedly at the ghost like he was the cause for all of his suffering. Well, to be honest, he was one of the reasons for all of his suffering.

But Danny was surprised that the obnoxiously loud ghost actually shut up and looked up from rubbing his fingers over the arch of his eyebrow, where the headache was focused at now, and raised his eyebrow at what he found. The Box Ghost was just staring at him, looking completely dumbfounded at the child’s outburst, like he expected the child before him to have endless amounts of patients for him to get over his repeated monologue week after week.

Then, the blue figure seemed to shake off his shock as he gave a small frown of confusion, before turning it into a glare of fury and looking to continue his shouting in righteous anger. With a pointed, accusing finger at the exhausted ghost boy, he opened his mouth widely, only getting out the words, “HOW DARE YOU-“ before his eyes widened in complete and utter shock.

Danny could only muster a flat look as he casually took out his thermos and turned it on, pointed at the annoying ghost before him. Not even giving the Box Ghost a warning, or witty comment, Danny sucked the shocked-to-silence ghost before him into the device with little care. He was just too tired for the whole charade. And so, with the boxes hitting the cold cemented floor with dull thuds, Danny floated back up through the floors and made sure to appear in one of the empty boy’s bathroom stalls, before changing back.

With an exhausted sigh deflating his shoulders, feeling even more exhausted than before due to the transformations he had to go through, he opened up the stall and walked out, dragging his feet with half-opened eyes as he travelled down the freshly polished floors of the second story corridor. By the time he got back to his classroom and sat down heavily in his chair again, Danny felt like going to sleep right then and there. He didn’t care that this was his favourite lesson, with his favourite teacher, with no Dash or other A-Listers to throw paper balls at him and get him into trouble for reacting to them. Sleep was a demanding thing and Danny had barely gotten an hour for the whole week.

With little ado, Danny slumped forward and promptly fell asleep. He didn’t notice that no one was even in the class at that time, all having gone to their hour long lunch break, or that Mrs. White had tried to talk to him while he shuffled in like a zombie fresh from the grave.

For a second, Mrs. White contemplated waking up the raven haired teen, but as she looked at the gathering noise and crowd of the corridors and the blissful quietness of the room they were in, she let him be. Honestly, he looked so tired and Mrs. White had to wonder what was keeping the teen awake during the night for so long. Was he just being a teenager and staying up playing video games into the small hours of the morning? Were his eccentric parents keeping him up with their odd work? Or was it something else? She didn’t know, and unless Danny came to her personally, she had no business digging about his personal life to find the cause of his exhaustion.

So, with a worried look at the favourite student, Mrs. White went back to work, marking Senior papers and listening to the young teen’s small snores. She would have to give him the work that he missed after he woke up, but for now, she could at least let him have an undisturbed sleep while he was free.

* * *

2) Cage

Ducking the large net, Danny barely spared a small grin when he heard the unmistakable girlish scream of Dash Baxter as he got caught in the net instead. Swiftly, he darted around the neon blasts with his leith form, trying to get a clear enough hit to knock out the other ghost.

“I think I’ll skin you for my rug, whelp!” Skulker grinned manically, as he aimed another blast at him, blue fiery hair raising higher in his excitement of the hunt.

More of Danny’s classmates ducked and ran for cover, turning over tables to hide behind as ghostly blasts singed the walls and displays over head. The scene was utter chaos, but it had helped when Danny had to slip out of the door and change, Sam and Tucker covering for him as he did so.

He’d been in his English class, Lancer droning on and on in a tone that suggested he was ‘holier than thou’, his hands weaving elegantly through the air as he told of the genius of Shakespeare. Danny just thought he looked more like an idiot than he did when he’s standing still… It was a boring lesson and Danny was lightly thumping his head on his desk at the back, ignoring the teacher’s less than subtle glaring in his direction. But, no matter how much he tried to drown out the droning voice, Danny couldn’t, it was like the sound was constantly stuck in his ears, and as a result, Danny left his eyes drooping yet again. Just as he was about to fall completely asleep, chaos broke out and students started to scream and knock things over in a panic. Sitting bolt upright, Danny stared with wide eyes at Skulker, who only grinned widely in return, before he took aim.

Now, Danny was doing roly-polies around the room, tiredly dodging nets and stun blasts as he went, ignoring the loud shouting of the ghost as he laughed evilly and and taunted the teenager. He’d done this last week as well. Only, Skulker had interrupted a mid-terms exam and Danny had gotten a major concussion and a large cut on his arm from being knocked into the wall too hard, catching his arm on the corner of something as he slid down. Now, it was a repeat. Why Skulker enjoyed doing the same things and failing every week was beyond Danny, but he had to defend himself and protect others, no matter how exhausted he really felt, or how tempting it was to play the ‘I’m a normal human’ card and leaving everyone else to deal with it.

“Your head with decorate my wall, Whelp!” Skulker declared, it was relatively the same thing that he’d said last week.

Danny rolled his eyes at the comment, feeling even more bone tired during this fight than usual. Then, in that fatal moment of tired lax, Skulker found his chance. Not waiting a moment, Skulker had the stun-net loaded and fired it at Danny, watching in satisfaction and soaking up the glory of his captured hunt. The boy was pinned to the floor now, helpless and panting with exhaustion due to the fight. Just as the boy looked to find a way to escape his clutches once again, Skulker leisurely pressed a button and grinned as the little Whelp became rigid with the shock of pain before he started to scream out in agony. Within mere moments, Danny was barely conscious, eyes struggling to stay open and muscles still twitching with the shock. He had no energy left to fight, but he hung on to his awareness. What was more important than getting the bad guy, to Danny, was keeping his identity a secret for as long as he could.

Within moments, Danny heard the dull thumps of combat-booted footsteps getting louder and louder, until the noise was right by his ear. A deep chuckle emitted from the source in front of him, screaming and panic continuing on in the background like white noise. Then he felt weightless for a second and finally gave into the beckoning darkness...

Waking up was something that Danny didn’t want to do. His body still ached from the latest battle and his could feel his eyes getting ready to roll back again into natural sleep, but his self-preservation instincts forced him into action, jolting him back into awareness. Sightlessly, Danny looked about him, ignoring the low tone of a voice that he could hear in the distance and then Danny blinked again, and again as he came to a slow conclusion as to what was right in front of him. Bars. Cold, steel bars that had a slight echo of a green glow to show that it was to trap ghosts and humans alike more effectively. Then, Danny remembered the classroom, the chaos of the attack, Skulker getting the upper hand, and finally, Danny passing out.

More alert, Danny sat up, heart taking on a more frantic rhythm as he banged his head against the low ceiling and slid his bare hands over the metal floor, eyes taking in the vertical bars that surrounded him on all sides. He touched the bars and instantly flinched back at the electrical shock that made his arm feel slightly numb. Frowning in irritation, Danny crossed his legs and rubbed a hand through his long raven locks in utter frustration, noting absently that he was due for another haircut, his hand continuing to roughly slide down his face and finally flop into his lap.

This was just great. Just what he needed.

He had a million and one things to do at home and here he was, stuck in a cage like some kind of wild animal!

Giving a cry of pure and irrational over-tired anger, Danny slammed his hands against the metal floor of his too small cage, tears pricking at his eyes before he hurriedly wiped them away. This was no time to cry like a little kid. Despite his age of a young and slightly impressionable teenager of fourteen, Danny was more mature than that; he had to keep a clam mind and a rational thought. Panicking would only be his downfall, no matter how tired and out of sorts he felt at the moment.

Just at that moment, the large stature of Skulker came from the shadows, metal teeth glinting maliciously in the dimness of the room, red eyes fixed on the prize he had tried so hard to hunt. Danny could only look back at the robot shell of the small ghost inside with a bored expression, completely unimpressed with the situation he now found himself in. In return, Skulker gave a small frown of confusion, wondering why the ghost boy wasn’t begging to be released or why he wasn’t shouting threats and promises about escapes and people coming to his aid, but quickly grinned to cover up his thoughts.

“I told you I would capture you one day, Whelp. I knew I would, for I, Skulker, am the best hunter of all time! If you thought that you could evade my skilful hunting forever, you were mistaken! And now, I will enjoy mounting that head upon my wall and your pelt-“ suddenly, Skulker cut himself off, blinking in surprise and no small amount of shock.

The boy was sleeping! Actually sleeping, while Skulker taunted him about his victory and how easily he’d bested the boy in their meagre fight!

A small snort came from the human-looking child as he shifted into a more comfortable position, allowing Skulker to see the small bleeding wound that Danny had on his arm and the child’s sleeping face. That was what made Skulker pause in his righteous anger and his actions to shake the disrespecting brat awake. The boy’s face was not one of a carefree soul that sat comfortably at the top of the food chain, but told of stress and hardship. The darkened bruises under his eyes made Skulker wonder how he had missed how exhausted the whelp obviously was. He should have seen it when they were fighting - Skulker had suspected that their battle of wills had been too easily won on his part...

Gritting his teeth and grumbling lowly, Skulker released the child from the cage. Noting that the motion didn’t disturb the ghost child at all, Skulker then summoned up some clean bandages and messily wrapped the arm before he put the teen in a more easily found facility. As he set the boy down in the middle of a warehouse in town, thankfully devoid of any and all boxes, he summoned a pillow and a blanket to cover him.

As he looked down at the gently sleeping boy, breath soft and even against his lips, Skulker silently cursed himself before he begrudgingly turned and walked away.

Honestly, he couldn’t claim to be the greatest hunter in the world when his prey weren’t even at their full potential. The point was that Phantom wasn’t putting on one of his best performances and so there was no real win on Skulker’s part.

But, as he flew away, intending to go back to his hide-out, the green flamed haired ghost made a silent promise to capture the teen again when he was well rested. And he would capture the Halfa, if it was the last thing he ever did…

* * *

3) Couch

“They must be up to something, Danny! After all this time, you have to be suspicious about them all suddenly going quiet! They’re up to something. We need to go the Ghost Zone and see what they’re up to!” Sam declared with a growing frown, irritation clear on her face at Danny’s clear disinterest.

Both Sam and Tucker had been constantly on his case lately, ever since Skulker had gotten one over on him and Danny had woken up unharmed, in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. Telling him that he needed to patrol more, that he needed to train in fighting a little bit more, that he needed to go into the Ghost Zone and show them who was stronger and in charge. Danny didn’t like the fact that they kept telling him to take over the Zone and gain rulership, like he should pee all around the Zone to claim his ‘territory’ like a dog. While Danny was technically the ruler of the Ghost Zone due to the fact that he defeated Pariha Dark, he just had no interest in the Ghost Zone. For one, he was human, first and foremost, even if he was half ghost now. And secondly, he was pretty sure that all of Ghost Zone hated his guts to impossible levels; taking charge of them would only cause more harm than good, he could feel it.

Danny felt his irritation grow as he continued to walk down the hallways of his school, his friends talking on both sides of his shoulders like his over baring angel and devil guides of life, only they were agreeing on the same thing.

“Come on, man, you’ve got to do something.” Tucker prodded, eyes almost pleading as he looked up at Danny, expecting his lifetime friend to give in within a few second.

Instead, Danny grit his teeth and growled, his patience having finally snapped like an elastic band stretched too far, and man, would the sting hurt for both his friends. Rounding on the two, ignoring the slightly widening of their eyes, obviously taken aback by his sudden aggressive action towards them. Sam went to open her mouth, a demanding question on the tip of her tongue, but one hard and cold look from Danny’s crystal blue eyes, had her immediately backing away and keeping quiet. While most assumed that Sam and Tucker were the overbearing friends that dragged Danny along for the ride, it was actually Danny that could best the two of them. Only Danny could quiet Sam enough with one look and only Danny could babble on with Tucker about some of his electronics, Danny often explaining the math and physics behind his parents’ weapons and how they worked. Though Danny was rarely considered the leader of their small trio to outsiders, which was why, when Danny stopped and gave a look that had Sam and Tucker backing away from him, people stopped and stared with just a hint of interest.

Danny ignored the ebbing sound in the corridor, his penetrating eyes held onto his friends like a physical grip. “I already told you that I’m not doing that, get that through your thick heads. Everything there is fine and as orderly as it can be in a place of complete and utter chaos. So stop trying to mess everything up by looking for trouble that just isn’t there, or your shit stirring with be the death of us.” he stated coldly and clearly, not raising his voice once as he stared at them with an indescribable expression on his face.

His friends, that knew Danny as the friend with too much heart and a boundless amount of patience for his two head strong best friends, had never seen Danny give an expression like that to them, so they nodded, quickly and silently while they leaned away from his glowering form without stepping back. Danny stood there for a second, before he nodded himself and turned around to continue walking, giving a heated glare to Dash, when he opened his mouth to say something about the performance the three had unwittingly had an audience to, effectively shutting him up.

The rest of the walk to class was thankfully quiet and with no other comments about ghosts or his superhero duties, though he knew they were bursting with the effort to avoid the subject by the end of the day.

It didn’t matter though, Danny knew that he’d receive twice as much chatter and ‘advice’ when he went home later, his phone chiming with a different assortment of messages. But that didn’t matter at the moment, his pulsing headache had calmed since the chatter of ghosts was no longer being drummed into his ears and his normal douse of tiredness settled heavily on his shoulders for the rest of class, becoming heavier and heavier with the beckoning of sleep.

He lasted a whole five minutes of class before his head hit the desk, an indication to the class that he had fallen asleep yet again...

Later on, as he walked home on jumbled footing from sheer exhaustion creeping up on him - he felt like he was going to collapse right then and there. He’d spent most of the night before doing his homework, small ghosts interrupting every five minutes and his dad had burst into his room with a new invention when he’d just gone to bed and spoke excitedly about the new contraption for several minutes. By the end of the night, Danny had only gotten a thirty-four minute sleep, which meant that he had absolutely no patience for school, friends or family…

He shut off his phone on his way home, teeth grating in a way that couldn’t be good for them, as streams of texted strolled down his phone screen, Danny not even able to read half way through one before another interrupted. All the texts ranged from concern (Tucker) to complete outrage (Sam), but Danny just didn’t want to see them, his human tolerance completely abysmal with his lack of sleep added to his sore body from fighting.

When he came home, it was to the loud clatter from a closed basement door. Danny didn’t understand why his parents didn’t soundproof the basement, if not for him and his sister’s benefit, but he put that down to either they didn’t have the time, being constantly side-tracked, or they simply didn’t care. Either way, Danny’s eye was twitching from the constant and persistent banging, his headache matching to his heartbeat and making him wince in pain, this needed to stop, or else he’d tear his hair out… Ripping open the door with more strength than necessary, part of his ghost powers shining through, Danny stormed down into the depths of the deep basement lab, following the orange light that indicated flying sparks from a metal tool.

Rounding the corner, Danny couldn’t help but glare at the massive contraption his parents were making. It looked like a giant fishing rod with a giant metal disc hanging from the end, the paint job of the strange device being a mix of white, black and ghostly green, as was the theme of all of their ghost-repelling weapons, his parents fussing about the thing with wide smiles of childish glee and excitement on their faces. A year ago, Danny would have looked upon this sight with wary fondness and a hint of exasperation, now he could only look on in irritation and fast diminishing patience.

His mother noticed him first.

“Oh,” she smiled widely and happily, radiating it despite the creepy goggles and skin-tight hood that she wore, “Hey, Danny, we were just finishing up here on the Fenton Ghost Magnet. How was school?” she asked, cutting up another piece of metal and sending a shower of sparks everywhere, eyes lighting up behind her round goggles. His father was nowhere in sight, but Danny could make an educated guess on where he currently was while his mum did all the metal framing.

Just at that point, Jack popped out from behind a large sheet of metal, a heavily glazed donut in hand and sugar power lightly dusting the black rubber of his gloves: hypothesis proven.

“Ah, Danny, my boy!” Jack greeted all too enthusiastically as he grinned in triumph with all his teeth.

“Hey, dad.” he waved uncaringly, quickly speaking over his father before the man could go on a grand sounding monologue of getting ‘those disgusting vermin ghosts off our streets - especially that Phantom one’ as his dad would so eloquently put it. “When are you going to be done? I’ve got a bit of a headache.” he rubbed his forehead with a wince that wasn’t that put on, for emphasis.

Maddie looked at her youngest child in a pitying way, never really loosing her smile that pulled at her lips whenever she was in the presence of her children, “I’m sorry, honey, we’re a little behind schedule as your father didn’t help out much, but we’ll hurry up as soon as possible.”

Nodding his head in acceptance, Danny resisted the urge to drop to his knees and scream and plead for his parents to just ‘GIVE IT A GODDAMNED BREAK!!’, but instead turned around, went back up the stairs and closed the door behind him, ignoring the childish tears that came to his eyes as the pain in his head increased. Really, he should have expected his parents to deny his small request, he didn’t know why he felt so crushed and hurt by their blatant dismissal…

Whatever. He was used to it.

Silently, he got the pots and pans ready for the evening meal that he and his sister would eat (probably alone as their parents were too busy), and then try to get some sleep.

Hours later and in bed, Danny could still hear the persistent banging and mechanical engineering that echoed throughout the whole house. Jazz had bailed on him, texting him when he had just finished serving himself dinner that she wasn’t coming home for the night, deciding to stay at a friends to study for their big test. He didn’t respond to the text, silently adding her serving to the large clingfilm covered bowl, before he shoved it back into the fridge and continued to eat at the table alone, attempting to do his assigned homework over the distracting clangs and bashes that were so loud it felt like they shook the whole foundation of the house.

The banging still made his eye twitch now and then, and his headache was to the point of his head splitting open. Thankfully, he didn’t feel his ghost sense going off at all, otherwise he might have actually cried.

The banging felt like it was getting louder and the pain in his head was getting more and more intense. He needed to do something. His parents wouldn’t stop until they were finished, no matter what Danny asked, and it wasn’t like he could go to Sam or Tucker without one or the other asking questions about what he wanted to do, or what he should do, about the ghosts, keeping him up for longer than he wanted. No. He had to think outside the box…

An idea flashed in his mind, a small, barely there smile at his lips, before he picked up his pillow and soft blanket and turned into Phantom, quickly becoming invisible to the eye and sinking through the levels of the house. What met his eyes was a scene that hadn’t really changed from five hours ago: Maddie was still hard at work and Jack was waisting time as he dirtied his face with the sauce of the dinner Danny had stuffed in the fridge.

Silently, Danny turned to the ghost portal, noting how the swirling green lights flashed and arched with spikes of electricity - it must have been on for a while. Without waisting any time, Danny flew into the portal and paused for a second as his vision distorted and then came into focus, revealing the boundless dimension before him. Green was the base-colour he saw in every direction, doors of all seizes, eras and states floating aimlessly through the 0-gravity of the Ghost Zone. Sparing a glance at the familiar hovering pieces of land, defying the laws of physics in every way possible, Danny sped off in the direction he knew he needed to go in.

Honestly, he didn’t go into the Ghost Zone as much as he probably should, considering his half-ghostly status, but he knew exactly where he was going and he was determined to get there with little to no trouble at all. Any ghost that attempted to come up to him had Danny sending then such a vicious glare, one would think he froze them with his ice-powers. Unbeknownst to him, Danny gave off a powerful signal as he flew, sending small ghosts fleeing from the open to escape the possible threat that was much too powerful for them to manage, which ultimately worked in his favour anyway.

By the time he was slowing down, exhaustion was making his vision shaky and his hands tremble; he felt too hot and too cold and all he could think to do was throw himself on the ground and cry himself to sleep - though he resisted the urge to an impressive extent. With no hesitation, Danny knocked on the battered door, with crisscrossed claw marks etched deeply into the wood (it was clear that who or whatever had done that had a deathly strength that no one would want to be on the receiving end on). He waited with frayed patience, shifting from foot to foot in anxiety and boredom.

Then, the door swung open and Danny’s eyes lit up with complete and utter hope, unconsciously clutching his blanket and pillow tighter to himself. “Hey, Wulf. Can I stay on your couch tonight?” he asked tentatively, suddenly fearful that his friend would deny him a night of salvation.

Without a word though, Wulf nodded his head and let his friend in, his large black nose twitching at the sour scent that was coming off of the white-haired boy. The child smelt anxious, wary and strung out, like the world was against him in every way possible, it made Wulf growl slightly, his spiteful claws digging into the wood of his door while his fur bristled. He would let the boy stay tonight, it was the least he could do after his friend had helped him so much in the past.

Closing the door and walking into the living room, Wulf stopped and stared as he came across the sight of Danny face down, and his body angled awkwardly with one arm trapped under the weight of his body and the other brushing against the floor, on the lumpy sofa that floated over the green wooden floors, pillow and blanket askew. The sight of the dark bruises under his eyes had Wulf growling lowly, only stopping when the sound looked to irritate his friend while he slept. His friend wasn’t being looked after, and this made him angry.

Instead of lashing out though, Wulf picked up the blanket and draped it over his young friend, before walking back to his own room.

A parting thought before he curled up in his well padded basket was that he’d have to visit his friend in the human domain more often, just to check up on him now and again. In the morning, when he woke up, he’d go to the couch to find it sadly empty, with only a note from his friend about being late for school.

Maybe he should get the kid to find a place of his own in the ghost zone, a private and quiet place for him to stay at when the human world got too overwhelming…

* * *

4) Car

He couldn’t breath.

Why couldn’t he breath?!

What was going on?

Where was he?!

Breath! Breath!

Breathe shaky as he took in heaving lungfuls that didn’t feel like enough, Danny slowly began to become aware of the place around him. The dark walls, the open space, the concrete floor, the smell of heavy dust and dead things in the air; this wasn’t his room… He frown in confusion. Why wasn’t he in his room? With perfect clarity, Danny remembered sighing with utter relief when he completed the school week’s homework, planning to do some studying and catchup when he woke up in the morning, his ghost sense thankfully absent at that moment in time. Dressed in his thick-material pyjamas (ever since the accident, he always had trouble staying warm in the night) and drowsily flopped into bed, falling asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Now he was somehow here. How?

Looking around, Danny stood up, looking down in question when he found himself in his ghost form, hovering above the ground by a few metres. The fact that he was in his ghost form didn’t alarm him as much as the change in locations, but that brought up the question of when did he change. Ignoring the puzzle for now, Danny focused on the area around him, eyeing the darkened room with a breath of caution. His area was the only one that wasn’t shrouded in eery darkness, surrounded by a perfect circle of lit candles, a line of white powder creating a slightly smaller circle that was at least three metres in diameter. Symbols and signs were etched into the ground in a marker, ones that Danny had never seen before and had no real interest in, other than a passing glance. It all looked like a summoning ritual…

Realisation struck him, green, luminous eyes widening a fraction, before his head flopped forward and met the palm of his hands in a dull slap. He could be summoned by magic fairy dust now? Or whatever the hell that white powder was. Flour maybe? The point was: who the hell summoned him of all people and ghosts? And, more importantly, why the hell was it in the middle of the freaking night?!

With that fresh reminder, he looked up from his gloved hands with irritated eyes, gazing into the darkness. It figures that he gets one blessed night off and something completely insane happens to him…

Glaring now with bright eyes, Danny went to float out of the circle - only to recoil in surprise when he met an invisible barrier and a faint shock jerked his body. Confused and more than a little irritated, Danny looked down at the white powder, groaning when he hit the barrier again and the powder illuminated brighter. Great. He was trapped, tired and probably far away from home. Now what?

Irrational anger flooding his system, Danny confused on the darkness yet again, not even surprised that he was now looking upon a stranger. The stranger was tall, nearly as tall as his dad, with light blonde hair, a light stubble and icy blue eyes, that would have frozen Danny in his place if he wasn’t too tired to care, and odd wounds that framed his face, like his skin was flaking away painfully - though he gave no indication that he was hurt. The stranger stood and stared at him, taking in Danny’s form with a tilted head, as if he was curious, though his smirking face told Danny another story.

A few minutes of silence passed, before Danny couldn’t take it anymore, teeth grating as he stared the man in the eyes with mounting anger, making it hard to contain his powers. “And you are?” he demanded, tone curt and that of a petulant child. Danny’s eye twitched as the stranger huffed a breath of laughter, finally moving to circle Danny beyond the barrier, steps almost lazy in their travel.

“Your new commander.” the man stated, tone even and commanding, like he was talking to a soldier that he had power over. “As the King of the Ghost Realm, I understand your need to create chaos in the world, to bask in the terror of others, to kill and feel the blood sliding down your hands, to have power over the living. I can give that to you and your people, if you join me.” he held out his hand like a grand invitation. As the stranger (frankly the guy was a bad combination of creepy and crazy) held out his hand, he stepped closer into the light and Danny sucked in a breath when his eyes landed on something odd behind the man. They were wings, burnt, bleeding, rotting wings with barely a feather clinging onto the frame of it, they reached beyond the warehouse, beyond the country, beyond the world. Three sets of them filling up every ounce of room and yet they weren’t there at all. Looking back at the man, Danny found that the man’s face was suddenly distorted, flickering to and from different features as it tried to settle on the complexion of the blonde man. Overshadow. The man was overshadowed. And whatever was overshadowing him was slowly killing him from the inside out…

“What are you?” Danny asked, anger draining as caution mounted, “And if you wanted my help, why did you trap me?”

The stranger grinned widely, face distorting once again before it settled, arms opening up widely and the invisible, rotting, wings rising slightly in pride, “I am the King of Hell, Archangel of the Lord, Morningstar, Light-bringer, Devil, Satan, Lucifer.”

He wasn’t lying…

Jesus, God, the guy wasn’t lying. And with the wings Danny could see as well… There was no real denying it. This lunatic was the Devil and he was possessing a poor man…

“Oh God, why me?” Danny muttered with a quick glance to the dark ceiling, before he focused his gaze on Lucifer again, “Look man, I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but I’m not actually the King of the Ghost Zone. Yes, I defeated the other King, but I never claimed the throne and I really do think you’ve got the wrong ghost here.” Danny twirled around his small prison for enthuses.

Lucifer’s eyes had gone blank, his face slack and Danny couldn’t help the small feeling of fear that was trying to claw away at his heart. Fire seemed to ignite in the man’s eyes, before the shadows suddenly started to move, forming into people as they stepped closer to the light. Danny could barely see their faces, forms encased in smoky darkness, eyes filled with a bone-chilling blackness. It took a second for Danny to realise that these people were overshadowed as well and Danny would bet all his pocket money that these creeps were demons, the Devil’s lackeys.

“See this?” Lucifer pointed to the white powder, “That’s salt, which keeps spirits, like you, trapped. Imagine, a lifetime here, trapped in the middle of nowhere, with no one, and I have the power so that it can never be washed away no matter how hard you try. If you don’t join me, freedom will be the only thing that you’ll ever think about, until it consumes you and you go crazy. An eternity, alone…” Lucifer sneered, his face twisting in a way that made Danny want to blast it off.

Without realising it, Danny’s hand was flaring brightly with the amount of gathered energy in his clenched fist. The demons stepped back, seemingly shocked by Danny’s power, while Lucifer grinned, teeth bare and eyes alight with something that just wasn’t sane and hadn’t been for a long time.

“And this is what makes your kind so special. So much power, abilities, knowledge. Potential flows through you and your kind, don’t you want to get stronger, gain control like never before, find abilities that you never thought you had!” he waved his hands in Danny’s direction, smirking at the scowling ghost in a child’s form. He could literally feel the pure, untapped energy that flowed through this one, so much more powerful than any other that he had come across, before and after his fall from Heaven. He could use them to defeat Michael, even if Sam never says ‘yes’.

His smirk fell when the child floated down to the floor, his wispy tail turning into legs and feet to stand on the solid ground, and green energy slowly dissipating into nothing.

“No.” the King stated, finality clear in his voice.

Anger surged and Lucifer had to bite his cheek from attacking the Ghost and killing him for his insolence, though he tilted his head in thought as the Ghost in child form looked behind Lucifer as if he was watching the movement of his wings. Maybe this ghost could? Meaning that he was much more powerful than Lucifer had ever anticipated. Oh, well, he’d come back to ask the Ghost King again in a few months - just let him stew for a while, let him go stir crazy from helplessness.

“Very well.” Lucifer grinned, turning around, his demons following.

“You were right about one thing though,” the Ghost called out to him, eyes alight with some kind of plan, a small grin tugging at his lips, “My kind is special. After all there are only two of us in existence,” That made the Devil pause, eyes going wide with shock as a white ring appeared around the Ghost King and in mere seconds, there stood a small, human, boy that was no older than fourteen… White hair turned black, while neon green eyes turned a spectacular shade of blue, and clothes turned into that of sleeping wear for humans.

Lucifer watched as the boy effortlessly stepped over the salt line, staring him in the eyes, before he transformed back into his floating form. Before anyone could shake off the shock of the development in the situation, the boy darted forward at a supernatural speed, knocking into the first demon and doing something that absolutely no one in the room ever expected. With the one brief contact, the boy had somehow knocked the demon out of its host, black, disembodied smoke streaming into the ceiling, and when everything had cleared, only an unconscious human was left on the floor.

In moments, the boy had knocked the demons out of everyone, finally coming to Lucifer. The Devil didn’t really have time to react as the boy grinned and glared, the dark circles under his eyes making him look more fierce as his eyes glowed brighter with power. “Don’t summon me again!” and with that last word, Danny punched Satan in the face, effectively knocking the grace out of the half-dead man. A flash of brightness had Danny wincing for a moment, before he was left in the darkness of the warehouse once again, surrounded by unconscious people that had been take hostage by demons and the Devil himself. A quick check on the man that was once Lucifer’s suit had Danny breathing a sigh of relief as he felt the strong, steady heartbeat, the flacking skin looking instantly better than what it was. He’d be fully healed in no time.

Standing back up, Danny felt his adrenaline leave him once again, making his shoulders hunch and his eyes droop with want of sleep. God, why couldn’t be have a normal life? Looking around him once more, Danny turned to go -

_BANG!_

Jumping away in fright, Danny accidentally turned intangible before the group of intruders, falling through the floor with a strangled yelp. Quickly, Danny resurfaced, a faint blush on his cheeks at what he’d just done in front of complete strangers. Looking at the group, who just stared at him in shock, shotguns in the hands of two worn-jean clad men and a silver dagger in the hands of the one wearing a trench coat. The man in a trench coat also had wings, though they were full, feathers dark and glossy as they reflected a thousand colours if the light hit them just right, though there was only one pair that arched out of the man’s back. Carefully, Danny looked at the man’s face, taking in the features of a clean-shaven face: light bags of age under his eyes, messy, untameable hair and dark blue eyes, like the depths of the ocean. The man’s face didn’t distort, or shift, stating the evidence that the overshadow was welcome and not being forced on the man inside. Danny couldn’t judge a person for wanting what they wanted and so he’d let sleeping dogs lie.

Suddenly aware of the awkward silence, Danny shifted in the air, suddenly realising that he was floating, before he eased himself down to the ground, awkwardly waving his hand as his face enflamed even more.

“Sorry about that. You just scared me a little…” he trailed off, feeling a yawn threatening to break out.

“Scared you- Scared you?! Are you kidding me?! What the hell are you, huh?! What did you do to these people?!” the shorter of the jean duo bellowed at Danny in a gruff sort of voice, that reminded him of a grizzly bear, as he charge forward aggressively with his gun aimed at Danny’s face.

Swiftly, Danny backed up, jumping up into the air and passing through a stack of boxes to hide from the man and avoid getting shot. “I didn’t do anything! I’m the victim here!” he waved his arms, groaning silently at the thought of these intimidating people being ghost hunters. He was really not in the mood right now: he was tired, he was lost and he had a huge exam tomorrow that he was sure he was going to miss now thanks to this…

“Yeah,” the short one huffed disbelievingly, “Right. Like I’m going to-"

“Dean,” the tallest one called, stopping the short one - Dean - in his tracks. Their voices were low, but Danny could here them perfectly due to his enhanced hearing, “Look at this.” a shift and a pregnant pause.

“I don’t believe it.” Dean stated, shock evident in his voice, “Sammy, are you sure?”

“Hundred percent, Dean.” Sammy nodded.

“What the hell is this thing?” Dean grumbled and Danny couldn’t help but take a small amount of offence to that. ‘Thing’? He wasn’t a ‘thing’, that was just plain rude!

“Hey! I’m not a thing, Jerk!” Danny called out from behind his hiding place, “If you were half woman and half man, would you like to be called a thing? That’s just rude. Can I call you a thing? You seem more like a goddamn miniature-bear from Star Wars to me than a ‘man’.” Danny huffed, ignoring the splutter of words from Dean and the echo of entertained laughter from Sammy.

“Damn freaking teenagers,” Dean mumbled, before he called out into the darkness, shining his torch this way and that. For something that glows, the kid sure knew how the hide in the dark, “I didn’t mean- Just come out here dammit and tell us what happened. We wont hurt you.” Dean yelled out, returning his gun to the back of his trousers, safety clicked on.

“You promise?” Danny called out, uncertainty in his voice.

Dean looked to Sam, expression confused and a little less tighter than it was. Whatever this thing was, it acted the age it appeared to be. “I promise.” Dean called out, wondering if that was really all the creature wanted them to do to make sure they didn’t attack it.

Within seconds, the thing was phasing through the boxes, lowering down to the floor until the kid was touching it. The kid barely came up to Dean’s shoulder, hair an unnatural white that glowed, eyes an even more unnatural colour than his hair. But other than that, the kid looked normal. Human. Hell, he even acted like a human.

“What’s your name?” Sam asked, voice soft and comforting, making the kid tilt his head to look up at Sam.

“How tall are you?” the question seemed to blurt out of the kid’s mouth, making Dean bark out surprised laugh, while Sam give him his Trade Mark Bitch Face.

“His name is Danny Phantom, Savour of the human and Ghost world, one of two Halfas in existence with untold amount of power.” the angel man stepped forward, before he bowed to Danny respectfully, “Greetings King of the Ghost Zone, it was not my charges’ intentions to threaten you.”

“Its fine,” the kid blushed, embarrassed by the title that these people keep on putting next to his name, “It’s just Danny. I’m not the King. Like I said to the other guy, I never claimed the throne as my own.”

“Wait, Cas. You know this guy?” Dean pointed to the weird creature before them.

“And what the hell is a Halfa?” Sam spoke up, picking up on the important fact.

The angel shook his head, his intense blue eyes somewhat admiring as they focused on the hovering teenager, “No. But he is admired throughout all of heaven as an impressive warrior, especially for someone so young. The Great Entity of Time has favoured him time and time again and even Death has even looked upon him favourably. He is a hero that has saved countless lives, from his time line as well as others at risk of his own life.”

“A Halfa is a being that is half human and half ghost, a being of limbo. I’m practically a walking, talking oxymoron.” Danny shrugged, before he waved his hand vaguely, “I know the name’s lame but all the other ghosts wouldn’t stop calling me that and it kind of stuck…” he grumbled, surpassing another yawn, discreetly hiding his lower face in his elbow.

Slowly, both the hunters turned to look at the kid with impressed expressions, eyebrows raised, at the kid. Dean then gestured vaguely at the blonde haired unconscious body on the floor that used to house the Devil, “You did this?”

Danny nodded, exhaustion weighing down on his shoulders once more, “Yeah. He summoned me,” Danny gestured to the creepy circle, as he mumbled, “Didn’t even know I could be summoned…” he looked back to the group and delved into the explanation that was the last few minutes of his disturbed sleep, yawning at random intervals. He finished with a jaw cracking yawn, squeezing his eyes so tightly that tears appeared in the corners of his eyes, before rubbing them away, “Listen, I’m really tired right now. I have a test in the morning and classwork to do and I really don’t have the energy to fly home right now, so can you drive me back to Illinois?"

The brothers looked at one another, silently speaking to each other before Sam gave his legendary Bitch Face and Dean caved in.

“Fine. But if you mess up my seats, I’m gonna shoot you so full of rock salt, you’ll be shaking it in your fries for weeks.” Dean glared at the teen, who really couldn’t be bothered to be panicked at the scary threat.

Nodding, Danny went out the doors the three men came from and as he got to the sleek looking black car that Danny knew to be a 1967 Chevy Impala. Taking a second to admire the car, missing Dean’s blinding grin when he overheard the kid admire his Baby, Sam only rolling his eyes. However, the brothers’ antics took a pause as they stared wide eyed at the floating kid that suddenly had a white ring around him and before their very eyes, Danny transformed bak into his human form. Exchanging white hair for black, green eyes for bright blue and tacky jumpsuit for childish pyjamas that themed the notion of space and aliens. With the added pyjamas, Danny looked even more like a disgruntled child than before.

Catching their looks, Danny yawned once again, rubbing a loose fist over his sleepy eyes, before he gave a frown of confusion, “What?”

Quickly looking away, the brothers cast one another a hidden smirk, before they replied simultaneously, “Nothing.” watching with small smiles as Danny shrugged and opened the car door, sliding easily into the back before dropping to sleep in a matter of seconds.

Dean gave a small chuckle as the scene reminded him of a younger Sammy, all of them climbing into the car and starting it up, the kid not even slightly disturbed by the motion.

Yeah, there was just no way this kid could be evil with how he acted. Castiel’s slight hero worship spoke of great volumes as well...

* * *

5) Enemy

Loud, echoing, anguished, and agonised screeching grated on Danny’s ears as he stepped into his obnoxious home. The sound made Danny want to curl in on himself right at the door’s entrance and scream along with the noise that was so close to such torturous screams that Danny felt a little green around the gills. What the hell was that?!

With wide, terrified eyes, Danny followed the sound that was scrapping away at his very soul, making him wince and making his lack-of-sleep-induced headache throb loudly in sympathy to the screeching noise. Timidly following the sound to the open basement door, ignoring the noise of his parents fumbling about upstairs. Danny felt like he was in a trance as he stepped down the narrow stairway, following the distressed beckon with baited breath...

Rounding the corner to see the darkened lab of his parents, Danny had to hold back tears of horror and terror at the sight before him. The giant ghost magnet looked to have been recently used, blueprints and instructions of how to use it sprawled out across the messy desk and on the table was a ghost. Not a ghost that Danny recognise but it wasn’t a ghost that looked mindless or animalistic either. No, this was so much worse. The ghost looked like a small boy, of about the age of eight or nine, wearing braces over his small heaving chest, boyish shorts and long socks that stopped just below his knees. The ghost child looked to be in agony, the bindings glowing spitefully, seeming to electrocute its captor to a devastating level. But that wasn’t all. No, what was worse was the blood. A surgical tray sat off to the side, splattered in green blood while the boy’s shirt was hiked-up, his rapidly heaving stomach decorated in numerous cuts, reminding Danny of something out of a horror flick - only this was ten times worse.

“Oh my God…” Danny breathed, ignoring the tears that descended down his face, hands trembling and Danny felt like he’d forgotten how to breath properly. “What have they done…” he raised a shaky hand to cover his mouth in horror, feeling like he was going to throw up at any second.

Suddenly, he came back to himself, the echoing screams of the tortured child hitting him like a ton of bricks and he stumbled forward. Muttering apologies and crying at the sight of the boy, Danny could now see a small brand on the child’s cheek, dark and unforgiving against the pale flesh, labelling the kid as ‘003’. Danny then felt like his lungs were filling with lead, weighing him down and halting his breath. This ghost was number three. Did that mean that his parents had captured and killed two other ghosts before hand?

Feeling the rest of his blood drain from his face, Danny rushed over to the closest bin and hurled up all of the food he’d had that day, before he wiped his mouth with trembling hands and stood back up. He needed to save this child, ghost or not ghost, and destroy that god forsaken machine…

Nerves steeled, Danny finished releasing the bindings, rushing in bandaging the ghost child’s midsection, ignoring the mass of green blood that bled through or he’d risk the action of throwing up again. Opening up the portal, Danny almost had to carry the ghost to the swirling green lights. God, he hoped that someone on the other side would find him and help him, Danny couldn’t go through in his human form and he still had to destroy the machine before his parents came back from whatever they were doing on the upper floors - probably trying to find their old notes to compare them to their findings with this ghost. But he couldn’t think about all that now, he had to get this kid out of here. Now.

Just as he was close enough to push the other through, he heard the boy say something, but it was too raspy and horse to make out much. Leaning closer, Danny asked him what was the matter, voice urgent and panicked in case he was hurting the other. “Th-Thank yo-u” the boy repeated, staring deeply into Danny’s sky blue eyes with his own neon green. For a second, Danny stopped and stared, before he gave a tight smile and nodded, pushing the ghost to safety.

Turning around, Danny eyed the work station with disgust, his stomach churning with the threat of dry heaving. Shaking off the urge, Danny got to work in shredding up the blue prints and other papers, ones that looked like the results of their experimentations. Feeling like that wasn’t enough, Danny dragged over a large metal bin and lighter fluid before he threw the papers in their with no small amount of force, not even hesitating to set it alight. He didn’t even have to worry about the smoke detectors going off, knowing that his parents had disabled it in favour of getting on with their experiments faster and without interruptions. With the fire crackling in the background, Danny turned towards the ugly machine and decided to get to work. He knew the thing’s weak points, having briefly memorised the blueprints and all the areas his mum had circled that she mentioned were faulty and in the process of being fixed or improved in the near future.

Unscrewing a few things and taking some parts of metal away, Danny watched in morbid satisfaction when the thing came tumbling down, causing a loud clatter as the million and one pieces came apart, damaged beyond repair. Thank god…

Hearing the noise from upstairs, Danny knew that he’d attracted his parents attention with the collapsing of their machine. Not that Danny really cared. Deciding to leave, Danny attempted to get himself to transform, but found himself unable to, his exhaustion coming to mind full force. He had no energy to transform and fly away. Man, he was so screwed…

Just then, his parents came down the stairs, skidding to a stop to stare at the mess and the fire in horror, swiftly turning to anger as their eyes landed on Danny and the empty experimentation table.

“Did you do this?” Maddie asked her son in a low voice, a voice that reminded Danny of the calm before the storm. With Danny’s single hesitant nod, Maddie seemed to loose all her gentleness of being a mother to her youngest son. Swiping her goggles away from her face, she stared him down with cold, accusing eyes. “How dare you-"

“How dare I?! Seriously?!” Danny found his voice, anger and disgust clear on his face. His father flinched at the sight of his fourteen year old son’s expression directed at him, but Maddie stayed still. “I come home and hear screaming! Then a little boy, covered in blood, almost ripped apart, crying, begging! What the hell do you expect me to do? Put tape over his mouth and tell him to shut up?! I’m sorry, I’m not a monster like you."

“We are not the monsters, they are. They come to our world, attack our people and then have the gal to act human. All they do is pretend. They don’t feel anything, they only act like they do. If you believe that then obviously your lacking abilities in school extend to common sense as well.” Maddie stated bitingly.

Surprised and hurt, Danny flinched back, feeling tears breech the corners of his eyes at his mother’s cold expression and his father’s quiet demeanour. “This isn’t about me! This is about how your letting your obsession of ghost control you. What makes us human is our humanity!” Danny gestured around to the horror scene before him, arms out wide to show the amount of green blood that he was covered with in helping the child escape, “Your a fucking animal and you’re no better than the emotionless things that you claim to hunt. I’ve never been more disgusted to be related to you.”

At this, Maddie gave a cruel laugh, the edges tinging with hysteria, “The only thing that you should be disgusted by is how your too thick to do a simple math problem. Not only have you ruined our lab, but you’ve also destroyed our life’s work. The most important thing to us, and you let it go!”

Silence filled the large room, her words seeming to echo around them as Maddie breathed heavily in her anger and Danny stared at his mother, ignoring his father that seemed to want to say something, but kept his mouth shut.

Hot tears travelled down his cheeks as he laughed weakly, sounding more broken than ever before. “Right. Your life’s work. The most important thing to you in the world. Not like you’re a wife… Or a mother. Though you’ve never been good at that. Jazz and I making our own meals, cleaning up the plates that you use. The only times I see you is when you barge into my classes at school to ‘fight’ ghosts, if what you do can be justified as fighting. You’ve never helped me with my homework, your seats were always empty for any kind of talent show, I had a stack of books that you promised to read to me at bedtime that’ve never been opened - I threw those out when I was ten by the way.” his voice was trembling now and Maddie and Jack both looked pained as their son listed their faults, guilt hitting them like a stack of weights, “So how the hell would you know what I’m good at or not!”

His screamed demand bounced off of the stone walls, echoing in their ears with a ring of accusation and anger. Both parents looked positively devastated, unable to look their child in the eyes. They remember when this happened with Jazz, her anger at them, her blatant unconcern with their comings and goings, only this time Danny was younger than Jazz when she branded them as terrible parents. They hadn’t learnt from their mistakes. Not at all…

At the responding silence, Danny shook his head, trying to keep the tears at bay. In something like this, Danny wouldn’t have even felt a burn in his eyes, but with how strung out he felt, the emotions came without his consent, leaving him drained and emotional. Instead of saying anything else, Danny stormed passed his parents, uncaring that he knocked into their shoulders.

Taking one last look around, disgust rising once again at the blood and torture weapons around them, his lip curling, before he carried on up the stairs. _That could have been me_. The thought bounced around in his skull like a mantra. _That could have been my parents killing me_. It made him shudder. His skin crawling with the very thought and bile threatened to escape him again, but he swallowed it down.

Once he arrived at his room, swiping up a bag as he ignored the tears in his eyes, the mantra getting louder, he hastily shovelled his clothes in his bag, mentally tallying everything up that he needed to take so he could leave. Without wasting anytime, Danny marched down the hall, snatching his toothbrush away from the cup they were all piled in, and ran down the stairs, clinging onto the railing as he fumbled over his feet in his rush to get out the house.

Just as he pulled the door behind him, stepping out of his house and onto the grey pavement, with a few fallen leaves brushing passed him as they rode the wind, Danny realised a devastating truth that made him want to burst out into tears all over again.

They didn’t stop him.

They didn’t call out to him, go after him, demand he stop this nonsense. But they didn’t. They’re still down there, brushing off his angry speech and carrying on with their work.

The pain in his chest was too much as he swiftly turned away from his house, finding a nice empty alley before he changed form and flew away, trying to ignore the words of his mother that seemed to get more and more venomous as he thought about them. He didn’t need them. He never had...

A few minutes into flying and Danny landed at his destination, looking around to make sure that no one was around him, he changed back into his human form and rung the doorbell. A few minutes ticked by and Danny pressed again, a thought lingering in his mind and getting louder, telling him that he wasn’t welcome here, that he never would be. Suddenly, the door swung open and the man on the opposite side stared down at Danny with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

“Daniel,” he started, a little haltingly, like he was confused as to why he was here, “What are you doing here?"

Unable to keep back his tidal wave of emotions that came with that question, Danny accidentally let loose a sniffle, before tears were racing down his cheeks uncontrollably. Desperate to wipe them away, Danny turned his face down as he looked up at the taller man, voice shaky and stuttering as he spoke, “Ca-Can I s-st-stay h-here for th-the n-night?” he sobbed harder when he realised that he was balling his eyes out in front of the man that had made his life the most miserable.

Vlad looked down at the boy with wide eyes, the sobbing mess Danny was in made him look younger than the brave hero that he was. Carefully, Vlad pulled the short teen closer to him, feeling more surprised when Danny buried his face in his chest, frame trembling with his cries, hands clutching at the material of his shirt as if to make sure Vlad didn’t leave him. The child was a mess and Vlad couldn’t help but pity the boy that was his enemy. Well, he was Danny’s uncle before he was his enemy.

“Of course you can, Daniel,” he tried to sooth as he lead them in, “Daniel, please, tell me what’s wrong? Why aren’t you home?"

Then that started a long and hard-to-follow conversation as Vlad tried to decipher Danny’s words, the teenager being way too upset and tired to even begin to make sense. But if Vlad were to hazard a guess, he’d say that it had something to do with his parents and his friends. Why else would Danny come here of all places? By the time Danny was finished with his hard-to-understand explanation, he’d fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable looking position that made Vlad wince in sympathy.

Dutifully, Vlad gathered up the teen, tapping into his hidden strength as a ghost, and walked up the stairs to the guest bedroom. Laying the teen down, salty tears drying on Danny’s cheeks, Vlad couldn’t help but feel vaguely guilty for attacking him and his family as often as he did. The little badger just looked completely exhausted… Tucking him in, Vlad shut the door, only leaving it slightly ajar, before he continued down the hall, aiming to go to sleep himself.

When he’d woken up, Danny had already left, the bed immaculate once more, making Vlad second-guess if anyone had actually stayed there the night before. Down stairs, in the kitchen, mouth watering armours greeted him, and he turned delighted eyes to a selection of food that had been placed on the table, still hot. There were no pots and pans about to clean up and the only evidence that Danny had actually done it was the dirty plate that he’d placed in the sink.

Smiling slightly, Vlad sat down and started to eat. He knew a ‘thank you’ when he saw one.

* * *

+1) Home

Stifling sobs was one of the hardest things that Danny ever thought he’d have to do. Surprisingly, no one actually realised how hard it was to keep a sob from being out in the open, throat sore with the effort, frame trembling, blind with tears that just wouldn’t stop flowing and the fear of someone walking in and finding you how you are. Unfortunately, holding in a sob wasn’t the hardest thing Danny has had to do in his short life, but it was up in the top ten.

More tears escaped as he sniffled discretely, door firmly closed and eyes trained on the dim line of light that travelled under it, trying to hold his too loud breath and failing often. He didn’t want anyone to hear him and come in, despite knowing that his parents were deeply invested in their lab and Jazz had gone to sleep hours ago, the fear of discovery still niggled at him, keeping him tense and ready even in his overly exhausted state.

He clenched his teeth when he felt another sting, wanted to scream out so badly to show the world he was in pain - in so much pain because of them! But he kept silent and suffered alone, wrapping his arms in white bandages, only for the red to immediately bleed through, like a never ending and unstoppable stream of water. There was so much blood. He didn’t know how he was still alive and not a rapidly cooling body in his bed. There was just too much, clinging to him and staining every surface with red smudges, mixing with the green smudges of blood as his hands fumbled about, shaky hands trying to grab at the things he needed. It looked like something out of a horror movie, but Danny couldn’t help but find small relief at the fact that it was his blood and no one else’s.

The only light in his room was from his open window, the natural silver light of the full moon illuminating his surroundings perfectly, and Danny couldn’t be more than grateful for the clear sky that had been presented that day, no matter if the freezing temperature of the night made him shiver, disturbing his wounds even more.

Honestly, Danny didn’t know what he was doing. His family didn’t have a regularly stocked first aid kit as they weren’t natural survivalist enthusiasts, the only thing in their toilet cupboard being a roll of bandaged, duct-tape and plasters. The plasters were practically useless, Danny’s wounds being too large, so he fumbled to reach the bandages and duct tape, wincing and biting his lips until they too bled, in order to keep the scream from escaping him and waking the household. Silent tears cascaded down his cheeks in small rivers, blinding him by making his vision blurry, his cleaning of his wounds all guess work as he attempted rid himself of the blood.

Limbs trembling and pain igniting every nerve of his body with every twitch of his overused muscles, he made his way as silently as he could to his room, before he collapsed into his bed again.

It was times like this that made him wonder why he did this. Why did he save lives when he was painted as the enemy? Why did he fight when it was really none of his business? Why did he strive to be a perfect imitation of a hero when he was bleeding and crying and broken into a thousand pieces? How the hell could anyone expect him to save them when he was being pulled apart at the seams? As these thoughts battered against his mental state like sledgehammers, Danny could feel himself sobbing harder, attempting to curl in on himself despite the pain that it caused him.

He thought back to what had happened. Thought back to the event that led up to his savage beating and half dead state before he even had a chance to turn tail and flee. Walking home after his detention with Lancer, Danny was scowling at the sky as it quickly turned to dusk and then evening in a matter of minutes, the orange glare of the street lights coming on as the world darkened around him, putting him on edge. Bad things happened in the dark and with how exhausted he still felt, despite falling asleep in the toilet during Lancer’s class, he couldn’t depend on his fast reactions to get him out of trouble if a fight happened.

Suddenly, as if sensing his jinx, a low, feline growl made itself known in the alley he was walking by, a blue wisp of breath and the chill that when down his spine had him mentally groaning. He hesitated to turn, wondering if he had the energy to fight and though he was lacking his usual backup, he always had his thermos on hand for just-in-case-emergencies. Shaking himself of any doubts, he transformed, forgoing his usual catch-phrase in his reluctance to fight, before he dashed into the alley, eager to get this over with.

Upon entering the alley, Danny noticed the lack of light, the lamp that should have been working to illuminate the small space smashed and broken, the shattered glass lying dangerously on the floor. His ghostly green glow allowed him to see around him, and as he concentrated, his glow turned brighter until he didn’t have to squint through the darkness, his natural light guiding him. As he travelled further in, the atmosphere seemed to weigh heavily upon his shoulders, stifling him and making it almost impossible to breath - something was wrong here and it put Danny’s already frayed nerves further on edge than they were.

_Clang!_

Jumping and swinging around to face the noise, Danny’s breath stuttered to a halt with his wide green eyes filled with startled fear before he forced himself to calm down, a black cat hissing at him from the edge of the open trashcan, back arching and small fangs bared at the strange, other-worldly being that was himself. Then it dashed away and Danny was left alone… Maybe it was just the cat. Looking around, Danny couldn’t find anything else amongst the rotten alleyway. He nodded to himself. It had to have been the cat.

However, just as he turned to leave the alley, he was tackled from the side by an overwhelming weight, knocking the breath out of him before he landed on the floor, smacking his head harshly against the concrete. The world having turned into a land of white-noise, Danny didn’t even have a moment to shake off the dizziness before his world was alight in white-hot agonising pain. Adrenaline spiked pain now flowing through him, Danny shook off the echoing pain in his head, now dimmed by the new pain he was faced with, just in time to roll away and dodge the cold, metallic claws that were just about to land on his head. On his feet once again, Danny couldn’t help but grimace and put a hand to his side before pulling it back, feeling like he was about to throw up when his stark white glove came back stained a deep green. Blood. Or ectoplasm - as that was adjacent to blood for ghosts.

The thing before him looked wild and feral, teeth bared and large frightening claws coated with his blood. The red eyes looked hungry and filled with rage as they focused on Danny, making the teen shiver. It looked like a tiger, black stripes a luminous green and the rest a black and white mixture. By one look, Danny could see that this thing wasn’t like all the other ghosts he dealt with, this thing was out of control.

So caught up in his observations, Danny barely got out of the way as the thing pounced again, catching Danny’s arm deeply. By now the blood was getting everywhere, dripping lazily from his fingers and sliding under his skin-tight spandex, making it uncomfortably slippery against his skin.

The thing leapt again, and Danny successfully dodged the attack, but then, at the very last second, it changed direction and inch thick, dagger light teeth were biting into his thigh. It was so deep that he could feel it scraping at the bone on his thigh, igniting pain to the very core of my being, making him cry out into the darkened sky in absolute pain and anguish, panic setting in as the pain intensified, making him cry.

Without thinking, he aimed his ecto-blast at the creature, making it release him before he tumbled, lifelessly to the floor, landing on his shoulder funny - not enough to break but definitely enough to bruise. Quickly rolling on his front, Danny took the thermos out and pointed it aimlessly at the creature that was about to pounce on him, about to kill him, closing his eyes tight as he braced for impact.

When nothing came and the silence filled his ears, Danny timidly opened his eyes and then immediately deflated with a breath of pure relief. But he didn’t even have a chance to internally celebrate before the pain set in once again. His small frame shook as the blood leaked out of him, creating a small green puddle around him and his head felt lighter - from the blood loss or the concussion, Danny didn’t know.

But, after what felt like hours of him lying there in pain, Danny floated up, wincing with every minor movement before he slowly started to travel home. Passing through his window, Danny finally turned back into his human form before he collapsed on the carpet, attempting to cover up the numerous wounds with his hands as he tried desperately to keep his blood inside of him and contain his broken sobs.

Now he was here, lying on his bed, covered in half soaked bandages and still crying and trying to hold in his sobs.

He didn’t know how many hours passed before he finally slipped into a blessed dreamless sleep.

However, as he slept, he didn’t pay attention to his ghost radar going off, the blue wisp of smoke rising from his mouth unnoticed as he dreamed on.

In the end, the villains that came out to cause trouble, went to the Halfa’s house, questioning where he was as he always came out and attempted to stop them. More often than not, the ghosts enjoyed the fights, which was why they always came back, but upon the absence of the young superhero, they gathered at his house, careful not to set any traps off before they all came to the hero’s door, walking through it before they stopped dead in their tracks.

There, lying in a pile of stained green and red fabric was a white-faced Danny Fenton, passed out and completely unreachable to the world. They could see the messily done bandages and could only guess the carnage underneath. Just looking at his face, they could all tell that he was exhausted, pale, clammy and with dark hollowing bags under his eyes, making them look bruised.

Despite the extensive injuries, they all knew that he wouldn’t die - he couldn’t, he was half ghost after all and ghosts couldn’t die a second time. Sure they could get hurt but they could never die. They could all sense that he was slowly healing, though the scars left in place would last for years to come.

Slowly and carefully, they all left the boy alone, nodding to one another in a mutual agreement to leave the kid alone for a few weeks. He definitely needed his rest and that was all they could give him at the moment.

So, with that, they left the Fenton primacies and travelled back into the Ghost Zone, happy to challenge one another until their Halfa was fighting fit once again…

**Author's Note:**

> I know it’s a bit dark for a cartoon, but I hope you liked it!


End file.
